Improvement in corn-planter



1 v i 2 SheetsSheet 1. J. ARMSTRONG, Jr.

CORN PLANTER.

No. 95,068. Patented Sept. '21, 1869.

[[zraizh' 2 Shgets-Sheet 2. J. ARMSTRO.NG,-Jr.

. CORN PLANTER.

No. 95,068. P'atnte'd Sept. 21, 186 9.

ates-t apliw-.-.

JAMES ARMSTRONG, JR, OF ELMIRA, ILLINOIS.

Letters Patent No. 95,068, dated September 21,

IMPROVEMENT IN CORN-PLANTEB.

, The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the same.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it.known that I, JAMES ARMSTROXG,.J1'., of Elmira, in the county of Stark, and State of Illinois, have invented certain novel Improvements on Corn- Planters; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which- Figure 1, plate 1, is a top view of a corn-planter, having my improvements applied to it.

-Figure 2, plate 1, is a top view of a portion of the front seat-board, having a laterally-movable seat for the dropper applied to it. 1

Figure 3, plate 1, is a cross-section of the seat-board, with seat applied.

Figure'4, plate 2, is a longitudinal section, taken in a vertical .plane through the seed-dropping devices, beneath one hopper, and also through the seed-discharging tube and the improved oscillating valve.

Figure 5, plate 2, is a rear view of a seed-discharging valve, its oscillating valve on a portion of the seedslide.

Figure 6, plate 2, is a top view of a seed-tube, its valve, and the horizontal plate to which these parts are applied, and on which the double slide works.

Figure 7, plate 2, is a perspectiveview of an oscillating valve, and one end of the seed-slide.

Figure 8, plate 2, is a section through an oscillating valve and a seed-discharging tube, taken in the horizontal plane indicated by dotted lines 91: a; in figs.

Similar lettersof reference indicate corresponding parts in' the several figures.

This invention relates to certain novel improvements on the corn-planters for which Letters Patent of the United States were granted to me, July 22, 1862, and September 20, 1864, wherein the seed-tubes, through which the seeds were discharged from the hoppers,

' were provided with oscillating valves, working onhorlzontal shelves, so as to alternately sweep the seeds from the shelves into thcfurrows beneath. The tubes were permanently closed at their backs, exceptat the points where-the valves were arranged, and,for this reason, the channels were liable to become clogged,

at its back, in com ination with a enable othcrsskilled in (heart to construct and use them.

In the accompanying drawings, fig. 1, I have repre sentcd a form of corn-planter similar to that described in my Letters Patent numbered-44,273, which consists of a main traiisporting-fi'ame, A, 'mountedupon wheels,

A A, provided with a drivers seat, B, scrapers, O 0,

inclined, as heretofore, I now make these sides vertical or perpendicular to the bottoms of the hoppers, so that the person who dropsthe seed can see the same as it fallsfrom the shelves at 12- into the furrows made by the coulters.

To the front and rear edges of the transverse seatboard F, which connects the two hoppers I I, flanged ways or guides, c c, are firmly fixed, which receive, beneath their inwardly-tnrned edges, the outwardlyturncd edges of standards, upon which .a seat, F','."is secured.

At the extremities of the parallel guidesc 0, "stops may be applied, which will prevent the seat from being casually detached-from the ways.

This seat F is for the dropper, who operates the seed-slide H through the medium of the hand-lever G and who can adjust the scatto any desired point.

By reference to plate 2"of the drawings, the mode of constructing the oscillating valves J and the movable backs to the seed-distributing tubes G, will be seen.

The tube G is secured at its upper end to a station'- ary platform or hopper-bed. 71-, which is secured upon the frame F. i V

Through the rear portion of this bed h an opening is made, through which the seeds drop intothe seedtube G from seed-cells made through a perforated plate d.

This plate a is arranged between two perforated sliding. plates, in m, on the seed-slide H, and the seeds are delivered ihto the seed-tube G precisely as described in my Letters Patent numbered 44,27 3, and above referred to. l

The seed-tube G is constructed with a central vertical partition, which forms two channels through which Below this shelf, and on both sides of it, is a vertical channel, formed by side flanges or wings, through which the seeds fall into the furrow beneath as they are swept 0d the said shelf a.

J represents a winged valve, which is constructed with stems upon both ends, one of which stems passes through the shelf a, and the other, t, passes through the hearing j, and has a crank-arm, s, formed on its upper end.

The wrist-pin of crank-arm s is received in a notch, 3), made in the rear edge of the lower slide-plate m, as shown in fig. 7, so that when the slide'H is reciprocated in one endwise direction for discharging the seeds from the hopper I, the winged valve J will receive an oscillating motion.

The winged valve is clearly shown by the several figures on plate 2.

It consists of two angular wings, a 0, having a segmental valve, 1', formed on them. 7

The valve 1' is supported upon the shelf a, and alternately sweeps the seeds which fall on this shelf horizontally therefrom,-and drops them into the furrow beneath.

Valve t is fitted to work in 'thechambcr c, at the lower termini of the two channels 9 g, as shown in figs. 4 and 8, and into theinner side, or that side of it whichworks over the shelf a, a notch, e, is made, which will prevent dirt or other matters from collecting'beneath thisvalve.

The wings o o extend .above the valve 5, and form an oscillating back to the seed-tube G, as shown in figs!) and 7. Thus it; will be seen that one branch or channel, 9, of the tube G, will, when the machine is dropping, be closed hyone wing, 0, while the seeds are falling through this channel from a measuring-cup or cell, cl, upon the stationary shelf 01 and in the act of sweeping the seeds thus dropped from the shelf at into the furrow, the other branch or channel y will be closed at its back by the opposite wing o.

By this means the channels y will be alternately opened and closed at their backs nearly all the way from the shelf a to the seed-cells, and there will be no liability of the channels 9 y being choked with seed or can he had to these channels 9 g, for cleaning them of anything which might become lodged in them.

If desirable, the inner portion of the valve could be extended up to the bottom of the hopper I, so as to dispense with the two channels in the tube G.

' Having described my invention,

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1'. The'wings o 0, upon the oscillating'valve i, substantially as described.

2. The valve 4'', with or without wings 0, when provided with a notch or recess, a, substantially as described.

3. A double-channelled or twin seed-distributing winged valve, J, or the equivalent thereof, substantially as described. a

4. The laterally-adjustable droppefls seat F, substantially as described.

. JAMES ARMSTRONG, JR.

Witnesses: 4

' DAVID J. WALKER,

JAs, D. HEATH.

foreign substances, At the same time, ready access tube, G, open at its back, and in combination with a 

